Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 Design Review

The typical compact tablet has a 7-inch display and has a shiny plastic case. Manufacturers have settled on the form factor as being ideal for consumers who are price conscious and value portability. Apple (AAPL) changed that up a bit with the iPad Mini, sporting a 7.9-inch display and a premium-look metal cladding.

SSNLF is trying to distinguish the Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 from the competition (including its own tablets like the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0) by going bigger, packing in the pixels and taking the appearance up a notch.

So the Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 gets an 8.4-inch display — bigger than all the other compact tablets, but still smaller than full-sized– with a very high resolution of 1600 x 2560 pixels, or 359 ppi. Apple’s iPad Mini with Retina Display, in comparison, has a 326 ppi display, so the Samsung’s should be sharper.

Content looks great, with videos and games in crisp detail and with good color reproduction. Not that the target demographic will be using the Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 for gaming or watching movies — except perhaps between meetings or while waiting in the airport.

There’s still some shiny plastic on display around the bezel, but the back is now a faux leather look, with fake stitching around the edges, reminiscent of an old-school business planner. It looks (and feels) better than it sounds, and if you’re worried about what white faux leather will look like after handling, the Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 review unit I received was white, had been used by many reviewers before me, and still looked good. In a worst-case scenario, it’s plastic –just wipe it off. And there’s a more traditional black faux leather option, too.